Lenovo's new computer stick turns any screen into a PC

A chewing gum packet-sized PC

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Lenovo has made good on its promise to release a Compute Stick of its own to compete with Intel by announcing the ideacentre Stick 300.

Labeled as an affordable personal computer that fits in the palm of your hand, Lenovo's first stick PC can practically turn any display into a computer for media consumption, web browsing, video calls and more.

All the ideacentre Stick 300 needs to hook up to a screen is a HDMI connection to push out video while power to the unit comes over micro USB. There's also another full-size USB port for hooking up external storage or other peripherals.

Micro machine

The computer stick comes with Windows 8.1 baked into its 32GB flash storage, but users will have the option of upgrading to Windows 10 come July 29. Internally, the ideacentre Stick 300 is outfitted with an Intel Atom Processor Z3735F and 2GB of RAM.

Compared to the $149 (£129, AU$229) Intel Compute Stick, Lenovo's competing device offers the same hardware for less. The biggest difference between the two miniature PCs is Lenovo has opted for a full-size SD card reader, whereas Intel's device only takes microSD cards.

The Lenovo ideacentre Stick 300 will be available this fall in the US for a price $129. The electronics firm has yet to announce an international release date, but the device should ring up for approximately £81 or AU$167.